Immigrating to Canada may be difficult, but it’s easy compared to finding suitable employment when they get here, said attendees at the Canada Job Expo on March 23.

“Getting into Canada was easy but getting a job here has been tricky,” said Kaushik Nagemdre, 24, a Centennial College project management student who immigrated from India on Jan. 4. He arrived equipped with a Master’s degree in automation and robotics from Bangalore and is expecting a long wait before he gains secure employment. Nagemdre says he has attended over eight career fairs since January though hasn’t had any luck finding employment.

“There’s a high demand for skilled trades,” said Sudip Mukherjee, president of the Canada Job Expo. “There was a line-up out the door this morning,” he said.

The Canada Job Expo hosted over 30 employers at North York Memorial Hall. The more than 3,000 job seekers at the event were a mix of new and Canadian-born individuals hungry for employment.

“A lot of people are technically qualified but they don’t have the soft skills,” Mukherjee said. “We offer free seminars and workshops on how to tailor a resume, how to conduct yourself in an interview and we offer professional headshots for LinkedIn sites.”

Mohammad Hossain, 42, travelled from Barrie to Toronto looking for a career in IT. He says he completed a post-graduate diploma in Information Systems Security from Georgian College in December. He has been actively looking for work in his field for over three years since his arrival to Canada from Bangladesh.

“It’s very tough for me to come to this area but I’m hoping this job fair is better than the expo I travelled to in Mississauga yesterday,” Hossain said.

Ryan Sandberg, regional recruiter for Correctional Services Ontario said, “We see a high volume of immigrant workers with great skill sets but they’re struggling to find work. We’re trying to build a workforce that’s representative of our communities.”

Canada Job Expo is a private organization and hosts more than 10 career events throughout year at locations around the GTA.